Reports: Pandora rules, AM/FM survives, where is it all going?

Two recent market surveys of Internet music services and AM/FM radio confirm my suspicion that nobody knows where the latter medium is going/staying in relation to the former.

If you are an Internet streaming music booster, you will be buoyed by new data from the NDP consumer research group. The survey concludes that in the fourth quarter of 2012 Pandora and similar music services snarfed down 23 percent of average weekly music listening time among music fans aged 13 to 35. That was a 17 percent jump from the previous year.

Here’s the analysis quote from NPD senior vice president Russ Crupnick: “Driven by mobility and connectivity, music-streaming services are rapidly growing their share of the music listening experience for teens and young adults, at the expense of traditional music listening methods.”

Are you an AM/FM booster and bummed out by this revelation? Not to worry. I direct your attention to the new Arbitron/Edison “Infinite Dial” research study. That survey acknowledged the growth of Internet radio over the last four years, but:

»During the same span of time, AM/FM Radio has grown to 243 million weekly listeners and time spent listening has remained approximately two hours a day.

»AM/FM Radio “Rules the Road” with far more frequent users than all other in-car audio options.

»AM/FM Radio delivers far more consumers than other media during the half hour before they arrive to shop.

On top of that, 78 percent of self-professed new music lovers told Arbitron/Edison that AM/FM Radio is “the top source for new music discovery,” as far as they’re concerned.

“We are now seeing the highest levels of weekly online radio listening with the increasing strength of AM/FM streams and other online radio brands and the near ubiquity of devices in which consumers can listen.”

A bit contradictory, this data? I’m starting to think that we are heading towards some kind of de facto AM/FM/Internet standard for radio and music listening (AM being the weakest link of the triad, but still kicking). Smartphones are obviously driving consumers to the ‘Net for music; but the ease and ubiquity of broadcast radio is keeping it in the equation.

Where will everything be in five years? This blogger doesn’t know. Your wisdom appreciated.

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About Matthew Lasar

Matthew Lasar is a co-founder of Radio Survivor and its business manager. He is the author of Radio 2.0: Uploading the First Broadcast Medium (http://tinyurl.com/jr8uknk) and teaches history at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Likes: deejays, classical music, Disco, postpunk, cats, free school lunches. Dislikes: money, ideologies, claims that technology will fix everything. Follow him on twitter at @matthewlasar.

As the person says above listening to the same songs day in day out. Same blubber from the djs . Inface listening to it all as become boring. Im sure im joined with many others. As Internet Radio grows i can see more people switching to a more variety station. A friend of mine as run Vikingradio.net and already raking in many listeners for its variety and choice. Commercial radio is more about profit than listening pleasure. Slowly people are turning off to it. Internet radio is now my choice. Listen to it now anywere even in my car very soon. What a choice